Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Vogue


Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine published in several countries by Condé Nast Publications. the American version of Vogue, is led by Anna Wintour, a long term English resident in New York City. Each month Vogue publishes a magazine based entirely on Fashion, Life and Design. It has surpassed all other Magazines in total circulation and ads. Vogue is so named because it is said to be as a noun, Vogue suggests transient impermanent fashionability.

The current editor-in-chief of American Vogue is Anna Wintour, noted for her trademark bob and her practice of wearing sunglasses indoors. Since taking over in 1988, Wintour has worked to protect the magazine's No. 1 status among fashion publications, both in terms of reputation and sales. In order to do so, she brought the magazine down from what Time called "its Olympian heights, acknowledging that trends are as likely to start from the ground as be decreed from on high." This allowed Wintour to keep a high circulation while discovering new trends that a broader audience could conceivably afford. For example, the inaugural cover of the magazine under Wintour's editorship featured a three-quarter-length photograph of a model wearing a bejeweled Christian Lacroix jacket and a pair of jeans, departing from her predecessors' tendency to portray a woman’s face alone, which according to the Times' Weber, gave "greater importance to both her clothing and her body. This image also promoted a new form of chic by combining jeans with haute couture. Wintour’s debut cover brokered a class-mass rapprochement that informs modern fashion to this day."
Wintour's Vogue also aggressively nurtures new design talent, and her presence at fashion shows is often taken as an indicator of the designer's profile within the industry. In 2003, she joined the Council of Fashion Designers of America in creating a fund that provides money and guidance to at least two emerging designers each year. This has built loyalty among the emerging new star designers, and helped preserve the magazine's dominant position of influence through what Time called her own "considerable influence over American fashion. Runway shows don't start until she arrives. Designers succeed because she anoints them. Trends are created or crippled on her command."
The contrast of Wintour's vision with her predecessor has been noted as striking by observers, from both her critics and defenders. Amanda Fortini, fashion and style contributor to Slate argued that "during her tenure, Vogue has been enormously successful":

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